


a ruined and drowning world

by syrupwit



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, High Chaos (Dishonored)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:28:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22214068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syrupwit/pseuds/syrupwit
Summary: The woman they pull from the river is delirious, half-starved.
Relationships: Daud/Jessamine Kaldwin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	a ruined and drowning world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kay_obsessive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_obsessive/gifts).



The woman they pull from the river is delirious, half-starved. Her party mask conceals a face so bruised that it takes three men to identify her. Even Daud, who once held her life in his hands, cannot reconcile this frail, spring-wound creature with the presence still towering over the city. In bloodstained, grimy whites, her choppy hair loose and matted to her forehead, she hardly resembles her own ghost.

“Empress. They told me you were dead.” Her bodyguard is rotting in Coldridge with the blame. Daud thinks, _You want a job done, you finish it yourself._

She glares up at him, eyes fever-bright and defiant. She hasn’t spoken; he’s not sure if she can. Her wrists bear evidence of bondage, livid above the Mark on her left hand. The pattern of weight loss across her body speaks to months of sleeping drugs administered against her will. Perhaps captivity drove her mad, or perhaps it’s hate that holds her tongue—the same hate that drove the Masked Felon's gory rampage through Dunwall over the past few days. 

Pity has never stayed Daud’s hand. Righteousness, he has no use for, or so he claims. Jessamine Kaldwin has no money any longer, and she cannot be said to be beautiful.

He is the first to break the look. He feels her gaze track him while he paces. As her hate burns his back, he comes to a decision.

“Thomas.”

“Yes, sir?” 

“Prepare a bed for our guest.”

The slightest pause. “Yes, sir.”

Daud turns back to the Empress, who stares at him unwaveringly, something animal in the force of her attention. He’s seen the same expression on rats cornered by wolfhounds, right before the teeth came out.

“I know where they’re keeping Emily,” he says, and watches her face crumple, turn human again.


End file.
